The present invention relates to the field of container, and especially relates to a connecting mechanism and a collapsible container comprising the same.
The dry cargo container is a large-scale vessel among the containers that is most widely used and has gotten the largest usage, in which the containers of 20 feet, 40 feet and 40 feet in height obtain the most common application, and the corresponding transport vehicles, ships and handling equipments all have been standardized. The conventional dry cargo container is of a fixed type in its structure, which provides many advantages, such as simple structure, low cost, light weight, high strength, good rigidity, easy maintenance, easy loading and unloading, however, there are also obvious drawbacks. The dry cargo containers often needs to be stacked and temporarily stored in an empty state after its goods is unloaded, but due to the conventional dry cargo container of a fixed structure has a bulky volume, it will take up a lot of storage space, causing a greater storage cost. When transporting goods from one location to another one, there is frequently the transfer of the empty containers, since the conventional dry cargo container of a fixed structure is bulky in its volume, although the weight of an empty container is not large, the truck or container ship has the same loading capacity when transporting the empty container as that when transporting the loaded container, and the loading capacity can not be increased due to the light weight of the empty containers. This makes the transportation cost irreducible, causing a huge wastage.
As the conventional dry cargo container has the above drawbacks, there exits a high need for the arrangement capable of overcoming the problem of empty container transportation, its leading driving force is to significantly reduce the transportation and storage cost, and its secondary driving force is the environmental issues and the tendency of low-carbon expanding economy. The collapsible container can significantly reduce the empty container transportation expenses and empty container storage cost, thus it has gotten widespread concern around the world and the continued development of many professional corporations. After several decades of endeavors, many forms of collapsible containers have been developed, and a large number of patents have been applied for correspondingly, but so far, there isn't yet one of them that has been applied in large quantities. The main reason is that the problems brought by the folding functionality of the collapsible container have not been finely solved, primarily: its structural stability, sealability, operability and the like. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the research and development to propose an acceptable solution.
The mechanized folding and assembling of the containers could save considerable manpower, and also could enormously promote the folding and assembling efficiency, satisfies actual demands when the container is in use, this makes the collapsible container practical, and the customers are more receptive to such a new mode of collapsible containers. However, in prior art, there are still problems in the mechanized folding and assembling aspects of the collapsible container, which needs to propose a new solution.